


"Sir, That Octopus Is Flirting With You..."

by Rusted_Crutches



Category: Bottled Up (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, Human AU, MerMay, Mermaid Tetrox, Originally Posted on Tumblr, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-21
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-03-09 08:04:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18912898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rusted_Crutches/pseuds/Rusted_Crutches
Summary: A small, silly little ficlet originally from my Tumblr featuring BUP Toxink.An AU where Tetrox is a mermaid, and Belladonna, Arnick, and Cyanthia are marine biologist's documenting her.





	"Sir, That Octopus Is Flirting With You..."

**Author's Note:**

> _"A/N: This is just a silly, little self indulgent thing I wrote last night when I was suddenly hit with inspiration, and needed a break from a big project I had been working on._
> 
>  
> 
>  _This is based off a small AU i’ve had since the announcement of BUP, and kept it around and toyed with for about a year. It’s not a universe really expanded upon, and honestly I was just pulling a bunch of concepts out of my ass while writing gfdhjs. Enjoy this for what it is. "_ — Original authors note from Tumblr, 
> 
> I've been meaning to re-post this here for a while. Guess it's it worked out, since I got the chance to get this up during MerMay. Enjoy.
> 
> Fic Original Posted On: March 26th, 2019

“Sir… the octopus appears to be flirting with you…”

Belladonna looked up from her clipboard and eyed the octopus in question. About 20 feet in away from them, there was a… mermaid, (I  _suppose_ you could call her..) floating in a large tank about the size of a very large swimming pool. Her hair was a vibrant purple-pink, and she had the legs of an octopus in place of those of a human. Besides those two features (and her razor like teeth) the rest of her looked perfectly human. So much so, one could be easily mistaken that she  _was_ … well, besides the aforementioned qualities, of course.

She floated gracefully in the water, top-half resting on the edge of the tank. When she noticed the two people looking at her, gave a cheeky wave, and blew a kiss or two at them both.

Belladonna looked back to her co-worker, fellow marine biologist, Arnick Stiltion, (still new to her division) and simply nodded.

“It appears so.”

She said nothing more as she turned back to her clip board and continued with work. Arnick stood there in silence for a moment as well… he was honestly expecting a  _little_ more of a response.

“Shouldn’t… Shouldn’t we… be worried, perhaps?” He asks.

“Nah.” Belladonna replies as she shakes her head “It does that with everybody… You should have seen what it did to poor Cyanthia,” She chuckles. “Little bugger gave her one hell of a love bite during feeding time, and she whacked it in the face with the feeding rod.”

“I was wondering how that got in the tank…”

Belladonna looked down at her purple lab coat, and over to Arnicks with a curious expression, causing him to do the same.

“I think maybe it’s the color we’re wearing. It’s pretty similar to the color used by it’s species opposite sex. I’m sure it’s just confused.”

Arnick pointed her attention back over to the tank “I wouldn’t be so sure…”

Belladonna looked up and saw the creature currently playing a sick version of tug of war, with a person in place of an actual rope. She had clung all of her tentacles on to a female worker, no more than an intern, and desperately tried to pull her into the water. Meanwhile, two of what seemed to be the girls friends, held onto her with all their might, keeping her from being dragged away. All three of these girls wore no official lab coats - or any shade of purple at all.

Belladonna stood for a moment “Well, maybe it’s just trying to eat that one-”

Before she could finish her sentence, Belladonna and Arnick witness as the octopus manages to successfully win the tug of war, and pulls the poor frightened intern into the water, triumph. …Not enough to fully submerge or put her head underwater, and with no intention to drown her, but so she could cradle her in her arms… and begins repetitively riddling the girls cheek with fast, harsh kisses.

 _Boy_ , is that is one direct octopus.

“Alright then, maybe  _not_ …” Belladonna admits.

“You know, you can’t just keep  _letting_ it do that,” he says as he pulls a cigarette and lighter out of nowhere and ignites it. “It could end up seriously attached to one of you. If that  _happens_ and we release it back into the wild, it could very well try to make it’s way back to the facility, searching for its ‘mate’. It could even get hurt.” 

She eyed the man almost stupidly. He rolled his eyes

"I’m sure you don’t  _need_ me to remind you how highly intelligent octopuses are —let  _alone_ one with a  _human brain_ —, or the research findings of animals being attracted to humans. As in the case with emus—”

Belladonna cuts him off

” _Yes_ ,  _yes_ I’m  _aware_ of the all that… it’s just,“ She trials off.

Arnick raises an eyebrow

"The crew and I have this  _bet_ going…”

“ _Dear lord_ ,” he says in disgust

“No, no, It’s  _not_ whatcha think!” She warns “We’re just coming up with different theories on  _who_ , _what_ ,  _and_ or  _why_ it’ll pull something into it’s tank. It makes for  _great_ research progress, and has thus far,” Belladonna smacks her thick breast pocket firmly. A smug look crawls across her face. “ made me a  _shit ton_ of cash,”

Arnick merely scoffs 

“Y’know, you could enter the bettin’ pool too, if you like.” Belladonna suggests

Arnick scoffs at her again and takes the cigarette out of his mouth temporarily “Absolutely not. Not only is it  _childish_ ,  _foolish_ , and  _stupid_ of you, its is also incredibly cruel,” he takes a drag of the cigarette and murmurs “Reinforcing this behavior will only end badly…”

Belladonna doesn’t respond. The two say nothing to each other, and just watch the three girls continue struggling to separate their one friend fro the very protestant octopus. It was a very amusing sight, one would have to admit… but the way things were going, someone could wind up drowning if they don’t get some help…

Belladonna delivers a harsh and firm smack to the back of Arnick’s head with her clipboard.

“ _OW_ -”

“The  _hell_ did I tell you about smoking inside?!” She barks out, before he gets the chance the exclaim his pain any louder.

“What the  _HELL_ -”

“I don’t want to hear it! Now put out that cigarette, and go help out those poor girls before we have a lawsuit on our hands!” She commands

“What, why  _me_?!” he protests

“Because I  _bloody_ said so!”

Before she could deliver another whack to the back of his head, Arnick has already put out his cigarette, and run off towards the large tank storing the octopus. Then a few moments later, Cyanthia walks in. There is a large bandage on her arm. She does not look very pleased…

“Belladonna, I am going to need you to file that report on my-”

She stops mid sentence and stands beside Belladonna, and looks on in shock at Arnick now attempting to help the three girls.

“Why is Arnick near the specimen’s tank….”

“Oh, I yelled at him for smoking inside and made him go help retrieve the intern.” Belladonna says as she gestures at the sight.

Cyanthia looks to her with a mixture of fear and confusion “But, hasn’t the creature nearly smothered two other male workers already…? ”

Belladonna laughs. “Ha ha, yeah…”

Cyanthia says nothing and watches on as they others struggle to rescue the girl from the clingy octopus.

…

“Hey, Cyanthia,”

“Hmm?”

“How much you wanna bet she pulls him into the water, head first?”

“Nothing,”

“Really?”

“20 says she grabs him by the leg,”


End file.
